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Electrocuted alien snakes. Two brown tree snakes (Boiga irregularis) lie burnt and electrocuted on an electricity power box. Here, on the Pacific island of Guam, the brown tree snake is an alien introduced half a century ago and since then has become a pest. It is thought the island hosts over a million such snakes. Its climbing ability and numbers have caused some 1,200 power blackouts on Guam when the snake interferes with electricity boxes. More than 200 victims have been treated for snakebite, many of them infants bitten while they slept. The snake, now a subject of pest control, has eradicated native bird species on Guam and threatens to spread to other islands.